(a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a support structure for a pedal assembly for use with a vehicle.
(b) Description of the Related Art
In car collisions, as is often the case, a car cannot be fully stopped even though the driver brakes the car by stepping on a brake pedal for the purpose of avoidance of a collision, resulting in the collision, namely, the car leads to the collision with the brake pedal trod.
In such a case, a front car body goes to collapse while absorbing energy of the collision, and an engine placed in an engine room goes backward while pushing a master cylinder of a brake system located to the rear of the engine. During the time, since a brake pedal lever located to the rear of a dash panel is connected to the maser cylinder through an operating rod, the brake pedal is also pushed backward through the operating rod with the backward movement of the master cylinder.
As a result, a load of car collision acts on the driver's foot with which the driver has stepped on the brake pedal until immediately before the collision to produce a large kick back, thereby applying an impact to the driver's leg.
To cope with this problem, various countermeasures have been conventionally proposed. For example, Japanese Patent Publication No.3267145 discloses a pedal assembly support structure comprising: a pedal bracket fixed at its front end to a dash panel and supporting at its rear portion the pivot shaft of a brake pedal lever; and a guide member fixed to an instrument panel reinforcement rearward of the pedal bracket and supporting at its front end the rear end of the pedal bracket to allow the pedal bracket to disengage from the guide member in a vehicle collision.
In this support structure, the guide member has a guide surface that allows the pedal bracket moving backward in a vehicle collision to abut thereon and then guides the pedal bracket downward. Through the downward guiding of the pedal bracket in this manner, the support structure can angularly move the brake pedal lever to move the pedal at the lower end of the brake pedal lever forward.
For example, in offset collisions, the direction of load of collision input from the dash panel to the pedal bracket may be inclined with respect to the front-to-rear direction of the vehicle. In such a case, with the pedal assembly support structure disclosed in the above document, a flexion may occur in the part of the guide member at which the pedal bracket is mounted. This may prevent reliable implementation of a desired capability to angularly move the pedal lever by moving backward the pedal bracket dropped out of the guide member while guiding it downward along the guide surface.